The tax on online casino-style games will almost double from 21 per cent to 40 per cent, the chancellor has announced as part of today’s autumn budget. This is expected to apply to both UK based companies and offshore firms operating in the UK.
The increase will come into force next April, and there will also be a higher rate of 25 per cent of general betting duty (GBD) for remote betting from April 2027.
According to the Gambling Commission’s latest Industry statistics report, the gambling sector made almost £13bn from its services (excluding lotteries) in the most recent 12-month reporting period, up almost 10 per cent on the previous year. Much of this was driven by a 13 per cent increase in yield from online casino players, the commission says.
GambleAware recently published a framework designed to increase awareness of the ‘underlying drivers and barriers to treatment that lead to inequalities in gambling harm’, aimed at commissioners, policymakers and treatment providers. ‘Gambling harms can affect anyone, however they are experienced unequally across society, with those already facing inequality and marginalisation bearing a disproportionately high burden,’ said CEO Anna Hargrave. These inequalities needed to be addressed ‘through a whole-system approach which works for all people, no matter what their background or part of the country they live in’, she stated.
Referrals to organisations in the National Gambling Support Network (NGSN) were up by more than 7 per cent in 2024-25, the charity states, with almost 14,500 people directed to NGSN services and an increase of 11 per cent in the number of people supported. A quarter of people said their problem gambling had started aged 18, with the median age of problem gambling onset standing at just 24. A recent report from the University of Bristol found that problem gamblers faced triple the suicide risk after a year – and quadruple the risk after four years – when compared to people who experience no gambling harms, with the future suicidality risk most stark among 20-year-olds.
Alcohol duty rates, meanwhile, will increase in line with inflation, in a move that ‘sends a clear signal that ministers aren’t bowing to the barrage of misinformation and aggressive lobbying from the alcohol industry’, according to Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) chief executive Dr Katherine Severi.
‘Past cuts to alcohol duty have handed out more than £28bn in tax breaks to multinational producers, even as alcohol deaths, hospital admissions, and inequality have soared,’ she said. ‘This government has chosen the right course today – but to significantly reduce record alcohol deaths and the huge impact it has on our most deprived communities, it really needs a more comprehensive plan. Minimum unit pricing, complemented by a duty escalator, would be the most effective way to bring deaths down. We desperately need a national alcohol strategy that combines these fiscal measures with other evidence-based policies if we want to see a thriving and healthy population.’
Alcohol Change UK also welcomed the move, but said it ‘expected bolder action today’ proportionate to the scale of alcohol harm. ‘This real-terms freeze in alcohol duty means that we are still only recovering a fraction of the total cost of alcohol to society (conservatively estimated at £33bn annually),’ said CEO Dr Richard Piper. ‘The country needs this government to be bolder, bringing meaningful change to alcohol harm. This means urgently introducing proven measures that have broad public support such as MUP, reintroducing the alcohol duty escalator and restricting “always on” advertising of alcohol on our screens, streets and spaces.’
Gambling Commission: Industry statistics annual report, financial year April 2024 to March 2025 available here
The gambling harms inequalities framework available here
Annual statistics from the National Gambling Support Network available here